


You Leave Me Cold

by witchbells



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Magic-Users, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romantic Angst, everyone is either gay or bi and i do what i want
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-01-03 11:56:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21179033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchbells/pseuds/witchbells
Summary: Mary is a young woman bewitched by Gotham City and the souls that lurk within it - one frightening soul in particular. Uncaring of the consequences, she dives head first into Gotham's underworld.





	1. Chapter 1

"I’m sorry, but that position was filled by someone in town.”

She pulled her mouth into a tight, fake smile, before she spoke into the phone again. “I was assured that there would be a position waiting for me when I arrived. My name is Mary Williams, I was supposed to be hired as a lab technician.”

“Ma’am, I apologise, but we can’t hold a position for someone out of state. We do have lab positions open in Blüdhaven, if-”

She took the phone away from her ear and ended the call, tossing the phone into the couch next to her. Mary put her hands on her face and whined. Everything was supposed to be perfect - she had paid the deposit for a partially furnished flat and she was supposed to have a job lined up for her to start next week. Every tedious task involved with moving to an entirely new city was meticulously laid out and organized. 

“It’s going to be fine,” she muttered, “Everything is going to be just fine.”

She pulled her face out of her hands and tried to look natural as her friend came in carrying a few of her boxes. She suddenly felt ashamed at letting her do all of the work.

Stephanie Brown was half a foot taller than her and was built like she played roller derby. They had met by chance as teenagers when they were playing an online match together and stayed in touch for years after, sharing microphone chats late into the night. Steph was almost as excited for her to move up to Gotham as Mary herself was, and was currently giving her a curious look.

“Are you okay? You look like someone kicked you in the shins.”

“I’m fine. Really.” Mary tried to compose herself and took her phone off of the couch. “Actually, no. I _wish_ someone had kicked me in the shins. I have to find a new job.”

“Library could always use another hand.” She thought out loud, and glanced at Mary - who was wearing a lacy, summery black dress with nails and lipstick done to match - a look that was practically a staple for her. “But I think if I saw you in a cardigan, it would break my brain.”

“..I own things that are like cardigans. Sort of.”

“Hooded cloaks don’t count.” She took ahold of her friend’s hand and led her outside. “Come on. Help me.”

Mary drooped and let herself be tugged along.

Her home was solidly located in an urban neighborhood. It was just a colorful, small one bedroom a little way away from the city that she was renting from a local. It had a tiny backyard, and it generally wasn’t in a spacious area by any means (and Mary had checked - most houses that fit that description were in big, pricey suburbs, far out of her price range) but getting there and seeing it in person for the first time, she felt a little bit at ease. 

Most of her boxes had already been unpacked from the car, thanks to Stephanie. None of them were too heavy for either girl, since Mary had to pack everything up on her own, but she wasn’t really in the mood for hauling anything after being told she drove eight hours north and had to find a job all over again. She was so caught up in her thoughts and it took having a package shoved into her arms to drag her out of it.

“Don’t worry about the hospital thing. Seriously.” Stephanie told her, completely undeterred by her friend’s grumpy mood. “You can’t go anywhere in Gotham without bumping into a hospital, or a clinic, or whatever. You have options.”

Mary just clutched the box and followed her friend back inside. “I’m from out of town. Nobody knows me.”

“That’s _their_ problem.”

She smiled a little bit at that.

Mary set her things down and kneeled on the floor next to a pile, reading the hastily scribbled labels she used in an attempt to organize her things. She slid out a box labeled ‘candles’ and began prying it open.

“Are you gonna let me do the rest of the hard work?” Stephanie asked, the question crossing her mind of just how many candles she owned to have a whole box set aside for them.

She looked up at the other girl with a pleading look. “Won’t you? I’ll buy us lunch after we’re done.”

“I pick.” She left Mary to play with her boxes. Most of it was already inside, anyways.

She pulled out jar upon jar out of the box, each of them protecting an herbal candle, leaving the others in the box and set them out around her new home. She imagined lighting them up later that night, when she could finally relax, basking in the orange glow and the scent of lavender.

Another box was pried open, labeled ‘altar decorations.’ Out of this, she gingerly pulled out a dark, wooden statue with both hands. It depicted a stern woman with three faces - each holding an assortment of torches and weapons, and hounds sitting at her feet. Mary took a deep breath and let it out slowly, gently clutching the idol to her chest.  
She continued like this until Stephanie had finished getting the last of the boxes in, unpacking her belongings and setting them around the house. All except for the idol, which she decided would remain on the entertainment console until she could find the perfect spot to set up the altar to her goddess in its entirety. Mary would do it later. Probably. She was lounging on the couch looking at hospitals nearby when she felt a poke on her head, and looked up at the offender.

“Already bored?”

She put her phone away and stretched out on the couch. “Yeah, can we please go somewhere? I want to do _something.”_

“Something other than unpack your stuff. I get it.” She grinned and reached out a hand, and Mary used it to pull herself up. “Come on. There’s this diner me and my friends like, I’ll introduce you to ‘em.”

Mary was beginning to feel very out of her element.

Until now, It didn’t strike her just how huge Gotham was compared to her hometown. Despite its buildings that seemed hostile and foreboding, and a people that assumed something terrible was just around the corner, the city felt undying - like it would be bustling with life at any hour of the day, and it was utterly overwhelming. Stephanie was right about one thing, at least. There was no shortage of hospitals in the city, and she had every intention of finding a position by the end of the day.

That’s why she was focused on her phone in a diner full of people, sitting next to the only person in the entire city she could reasonably call her friend. Stephanie was resting her chin on her head and staring out the window. Both girls’ drinks had gone mostly forgotten.

“They should be here by now.”

“Uh huh.” Mary finally looked up from her phone. “Who did you say was coming again?”

“Just two people I know, Tim and Cass.” She tore her gaze away from the window and watched her friend. “You know Tim. I’ve mentioned him.”

“Oh, of course! The off-and-on, how could I forget.”

_“Mary.”_

“He’s a wishy washy bastard, and you know I don’t like him.” The short, now angry blonde put her phone away and turned to face Stephanie, keeping her voice low. “I know it’s not my business, but with all the shit he gives you, all the times you’ve said he’s broken your trust, how can you still put your faith in him?”

“You’re right. It’s not your business.”

“He betrayed you.”

“It’s.. not that simple. Look, I know you don’t like him, but he’s not a bad guy. Especially once you get to know him.”

“I know enough. Men like him deserve to-”

Both girls were interrupted by a tapping on the booth’s table.

It came from two young adults standing beside the table - A boy their age with black hair, and blue eyes (Tim, she knew - having seen pictures of him in the past) and an asian girl about Stephanie’s height wearing an unassuming black hoodie.

“Hello, ladies. Mind if we join you?”

Mary rolled her eyes at the comment, and Stephanie gestured to the seat across from them.

“It’s not just cursed, it’s some sort of nexus. You have the worst of the worst in this city - Thomas Elliot, Victor Zsasz, Oswald Cobblepot, Roman Sionis-”

“That’s an encyclopedic knowledge of costumed criminals you’ve got there.”

Tim caught a glare from Mary for cutting her off. “I’m not saying there’s something in your water. I’m saying there’s something here that draws people in. Something.. Something _old,_ I think.”

He, other than the one comment, didn’t have much to say about the town he was born and raised in being supposedly evil. Stephanie was watching Mary with her chin in her hand. Metaphysical discussions like this weren’t uncommon for the two of them. Stephanie thought back to all the times Mary would wax poetic about the ‘things we share this Earth with.’

“You always talk about how you hate big cities. You think something drew you up here?” 

Mary flustered for a moment, and shrugged. “More or less.”

“What sorta something?”

“It’s-” She scoffed, looking awkward again. Mary’s eyes darted around for something, anything, to detract from the direction this conversation was going. Her gaze set on the window. “The sun’s gone down.”

And like that, all three of them were sat up and alert. Tim checked the time on his phone, Stephanie made a pained face at the sky, and Cass.. seemed nonplussed, actually.

“It’s been four hours! How did I let time get away from me?”

Not caring for Tim’s apparent distress, Mary slipped out of the booth with Stephanie following suite, feeling just a bit smug at how well her ploy worked out.

She didn’t pay Cass or Tim much attention, adjusting her bag and standing a little closer to Stephanie. She didn’t want to admit it, but she _still_ didn’t like Tim and didn’t know what to make of the quieter, analytical Cassandra. She tapped Stephanie on the shoulder.

“Hug?”

She obliged, giving the other woman a tight hug and got squeezed in return. “Be careful, okay?”

“Promise we’ll hang out sometime? I still have a few ‘new city’ things to do, but once all’s said and done..”

“Promise. Go on, I’ll catch a ride.”

Once returned, Mary locked her front door behind her and leaned against it, relaxing in the darkness of the small living room, and breathed in the scent of her home.

Her new home in Gotham City. 

In the light of the moon that shone through the window, Mary went and kneeled before the entertainment console and took the idol of the goddess she held so dearly into her hands once more.

“This is where the hard part comes in,” she breathed.


	2. Chapter 2

The living room floor of the small house was absolutely covered in open books and papers.

After everything was unpacked, the important calls had been made (she was lucky enough to land a job at Wayne Memorial, thanks to a convenient staff shortage) Mary had pulled out books from the library on the city's history and laid out some resources of her own. For approximately thirty-two hours, she had been sitting in her pajamas with the AC cranked up, studying the old books. Her current focus was a large unfolded map of North America, a pattern of curved lines drawn over it in a purple marker. Two of these lines intersected over New Jersey - and, if her measurements weren't off, just outside of Gotham City.

She rubbed at her eyes and reached into a haphazard pile of papers, checking her measurements against a map of the state. It had been a little while since she last had any sleep, but if she was right, this would all be worth it. 

Mary looked up at the clock. Three in the morning was a good time to go exploring, right?

Parkour gave Spoiler a really, really great edge over most of Gotham’s costumed criminals.

Especially one that was currently trying to make a frantic escape with stolen technology in tow, and had been trying to avoid the vigilantes for the past couple of weeks with questionable success. Jervis Tetch was a fearful wreck and felt every bit like the hunted prey he was at the moment.

She was soundless as she chased Tetch from the rooftops, gaining ahead on him - just as she was taught - for the appropriately _dramatic_ moment to land in front of him and stop the criminal in his tracks.

Her boots hit the asphalt with a thud and startled the little man off his feet, whereafter he was scurrying backwards from the masked woman who came closer by the minute.

“Come on, Tetch. Let’s make this easy.”

“No! No, get- “ The little man was scrambling to his feet, desperately clutching the precious stolen cargo in his arms, poised again to make a break for it, looking for some kind of exit - but the faceless woman advancing on him made chances seem slim. “Get away! You’ll not take this from me! Once I finish _this,_ Alice will be mine, you’ll see, you’ll see!”

“You’re having an episode, Tetch.”

That comment was enough to inspire the angry little man to make another break for it, but Spoiler was quicker - quick enough to toss out a cord, one that wrapped around his ankles and sent him face first into the asphalt.

Just as she knelt down to grab him, a little beeping came from her earpiece. She gave it a tap and listened for whoever was contacting her. It was probably Barbara, or Tim, or-

“Hey. Are you busy?”

_“Ma-”_ No, she stopped herself, don’t say your friend’s name before the angry, restrained criminal on the ground. Spoiler stood up, cord still in her hand along with tonight’s catch still attached, struggling against the asphalt. “What are you doing calling me at this hour? Are you okay?”

“No, I’m bored. Can you come help me find a leyline?”

“Okay. So, you have no idea what time it is.” She braced the cord against her shoulder, prepared to nonchalantly drag Tetch behind her. “Or you wouldn’t be asking me to help you look for, if I remember right, the same thing you called “hokey nonsense” a couple months back, in the middle of the night, in _Gotham fucking Ci-”_ A snap interrupted her, and she looked back just in time to see the cord severed and Jervis Tetch ducking down a corner, stolen tech cradled in his arms.

“No!” She charged down the alley in an attempt to keep up with him, but once she rounded the corner, she realized it was too late. He had already disappeared, along with whatever the hell he had stolen, and all she had to show for it was Mary’s long, whiny ‘please’ in her ear, along with a promise to be ‘super careful.’

She rubbed her face and grimaced. “Do you want me to show up at your house, or something?”

“Yes! Thank you so much, you won’t regret it!” She doubted that, but Mary hung up immediately after, leaving Spoiler alone with her thoughts. Her awful, horrible thoughts.

Maybe Batman would only kill her a little bit.

“..but you really shouldn’t be calling me at night like this.”

“Why not? We were both awake! And you didn’t even sound busy with anything.”

“Yeah, actually, I was in the middle of something..”

Stephanie, still irritated from the earlier incident, said this as she leaned her head against the car window and watched the world go by.

The two girls were riding through the night as Mary, who seemed perfectly comfortable driving at such a late hour, took them outside of the city limits around the more wooded areas of Gotham, where buildings of any kind were few and far between and trees loomed over the street, a summer breeze blowing through their branches.

“..and this is beside the whole point I made of “being careful at night.” Gotham isn’t like your hometown, and I have no idea where you’re-” At this thought, she took her head off of the window and looked at Mary. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“Sort of.”

“Sort of.” She repeated, unsuccessful in keeping the incredulous tone out of her voice. She rested her head back on the window, with the sort of ‘this is going to go terribly’ that had become so prevalent in her life now. “Okay, great.”

“You worry too much. It’s fine, I’m with you, and you’re probably strong enough to pick me up and throw me-”

“You’re four-foot-eleven and weigh a hundred pounds _wet.”_

“- exactly! See? We’re fine.”

Though it did nothing to ease the doubt on Stephanie’s mind, Mary was right on one account. If something happened, she could keep both of them safe. She didn’t want to think about all the things that could be lurking in the wooded no man’s land outside of the city.

Finally, Mary pulled over to the side of the road, checked her phone, and nearly leapt out of the car, clearly pleased with what she saw and glee written on her face. Stephanie had traded her costume for a pair of jeans, but Mary characteristically did not dress for the occasion at all, opting for shorts, fishnets, and her usual color of lipstick. Nonetheless, she trampled into the woods, blanketed by a night that was made darker by the clouds blocking out the moon. Only after did Stephanie see her light up the woods with a flashlight.

“Can you hold this?” She asked, offering it to Stephanie and clutching her phone with the other hand. “You’re taller.”

Just as she took the flashlight, Mary continued forwards into the woods, seemingly immune, or even enjoying, the foreboding of the whole situation. The small woman alternated between using her phone to assist in lighting up the woods, and checking their location on a map.  
“Are you going to tell me what it is exactly we’re looking for?”

“Leyline.”

“Yeah, I got that part.” At this point, dread and irritation were battling to win over Stephanie’s mood. “But you were just telling me that leylines are bullshit a few months ago, and now you’re trampling through the woods at night trying to find one. Why?”

“..Because I miiiight have changed my mind?”

“Okay, cool. Explain.”

“Oh, cripes, where do I..” Mary looked around the woods, as if the trees would help her elucidate on her actions. “So leylines are these intangible lines of power. Or, well, not really, because that doesn’t make any sense, but they kind of.. Okay, you know Stonehenge?”

“I know what Stonehenge is.”

“Stonehenge is one of the more prolific examples. See, Stonehenge exists on this intersection of leylines, and it sort of goes to show that each intersection is supposed to be this place of power.”

“What’s a place of power?”

“Uh. It’s really hard to explain..” In the dim light, she could see Mary putting her hands together in thought, muting the light of her phone as she tried to put the words together. “Like the pyramids, or Stonehenge, or.. It doesn’t matter. There’s one in Gotham, and I’m going to find it.”

“We’re not really _in_ Gotham anymore.” As if the words gave more gravity to the situation, Stephanie stepped up closer to the shorter woman, opting her walk next to her. “I’ve lived in Gotham all my life, and I’m pretty sure we passed the city limits a while back there.”

“Oh,” said Mary, unperturbed as ever. “Close enough.”

They were deep in the forest now, and Stephanie was becoming genuinely concerned with the precarious nature of the situation. It’s not as if Mary didn’t know they were in a dangerous situation, she simply seemed not to care. Every snapped twig or shuffle in the distance put Stephanie on alert. They were surrounded by pitch, with the only light coming from them - and a twinkling up ahead. Stephanie took Mary’s shoulder to stop her and squinted at the little light, trying to divine if it was a person or something else entirely.

The smaller woman slumped her shoulders. She looked back at Stephanie, and followed her gaze to the little bit of light coming from up ahead. “Oh. _Oh.”_  
“I think we should go back,” Stephanie murmured.

Mary shook her head and shrugged away from her friend. “I did not trudge out here for fucking nothing. That’s probably what I’m looking for.”

“That’s probably a _person!”_ She hissed, catching up as Mary continued forward at a faster pace “I’m not letting you get murdered when you’ve barely been here for a week!”

Stephanie was met with a deadpan look in response. 

All of this had been carefully planned out. From the time she arrived, after every intricacy was taken care of and delicately folded away, Mary had set to work finding this exact spot. She didn’t know exactly what she was going to do after she found what she was looking for, _if_ she could even see it, but she would figure it out. Eventually.

She wouldn’t let a single moment of planning go to waste.

So without a word, and without her friend, Mary turned around and kept walking - and Stephanie followed her, much to her own chagrin, because she was starting to realize that if Mary didn’t understand the differences that Gotham posed very soon, she was going to be learning it the hard way.

“It’s just a building.” Mary whispered, hovering at the edge of the trees and peeking out. She couldn’t see much of it from their angle, but the building and the stone fences surrounding it looked older than anything she had visited so far. “I wonder if it’s abandoned.”

“If it were abandoned, the city _probably_ wouldn’t keep the lights o-” Stephanie’s sentence stopped in her throat as she caught up to her friend and saw what they had trekked out here at such a late hour to find.

“I mean.. I guess they _probably_ wouldn’t, but.. Oh, it would be really _convenient_ if- hey!” She startled as Stephanie turned her away from the building and started walking them the other way. “You- _touchy!_”

“Arkham Asylum.” she said, guiding her Mary, hands on her shoulders, right back out of the woods, and blissfully far away from Arkham. “Your place of power is Arkham fucking Asylum.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i make the thing. i do a write

**Author's Note:**

> happy scarecrow week everyone!!


End file.
